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2026-03-31-accounts

Tewkesbury Museum Annual Report and Accounts for the Year Ended 31 March 2026

Contents

Subject Page No.
Reference and Administrative Details 2
Trustees’ Report 3
Independent Examiner’s Report 12
Statement of Financial Activities 13
Balance Sheet 14
Notes to the Accounts 15

1

Reference and Administrative Details

Charity Number 1185929

Address 64 Barton Street Tewkesbury Gloucestershire GL20 5PX

Trustees

Ian Coates Paul Drake Sash Giles (appointed 24/6/25, retired 31/12/25) Clare Milling (appointed 16/3/26) Eleanor Paice (retired 22/1/26) Joanne Raywood (Chair) Georgina Robinson Jennifer Smart (retired 31/7/25) Elanor Stanley Oriel Wison (appointed 5/5/26)

2

Trustees’ Report

Structure, Governance and Management

The Museum is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, number 1185929.

The Museum’s governing document is its Constitution. This was revised on 15 July 2025.

The governing body consists of up to 12 trustees. Up to 4 trustees may be nominated by Tewkesbury Town Council but their appointment is by the existing trustees.

The Museum has comprehensive policies and processes for the recruitment and induction of new trustees.

The Museum is run by volunteers. We have no employees, but have paid for a parttime contractor for the last two years.

Objectives and Activities

The objects of the Museum are:

  1. The establishment and maintenance of one or more museums in Tewkesbury

  2. The advancement of public knowledge and education about the history and heritage of Tewkesbury and its environs

Our constitution lists the main activities of the Museum as:

  1. Effective stewardship of the CIO’s collections and archives

  2. Exhibiting, interpreting and providing access to collections and archives

  3. Collecting artefacts in its own right or in collaboration with other Museums

  4. Working in partnership with other organisations that have an interest in the history of Tewkesbury and its environs

We also engage, or plan to engage, in other important activities that further our second object such as outreach, walks, talks and external exhibitions.

The trustees have complied with the Charities Act 2011 requirement to have regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.

3

Review of 2025/26

Building

Between October 2023 and June 2024 our landlord, Tewkesbury Town Council, carried out major repairs with the help of a Museum Estate and Development (MEND) grant. It was disappointing, but perhaps inevitable in a building nearly 400 years old, that the need for further repairs was identified even before this work was finished.

With our support, in October 2025 the Council submitted an application for another MEND grant to pay for these repairs and a reconfiguration of our ground floor, but this was unfortunately unsuccessful. The Council will, therefore, pay for these repairs itself, with work expected to be carried out later in 2026/27, having already paid for an urgent repair early in 2026. We are fortunate that the Council has, in recent years, not only accepted its responsibility for the maintenance of our building, but also allocated funds to enable it to carry out repairs when necessary.

Unlocking Collections

We put in a lot of effort preparing an application for the ‘Unlocking Collections’ category of the National Lottery Project Grants scheme, and were very pleased when, just before 2025/26 year-end, we heard that we had been successful.

This grant will enable us to initiate rationalisation work, make improvements to first floor displays, and extend our outreach and group visit programmes. More details are given in ‘Plans for the Future’ below.

Collections

We initiated an audit of our collections before Covid. After an inevitable pause, more resource was allocated to this work in 2022, but progress was interrupted when we had to close for repairs. The audit has now been completed, with the help, over the last couple of years, of over a dozen volunteers..

In mid-2023, in anticipation of the museum being closed for an indeterminate period of time, we decided it was not appropriate to request full re-accreditation and chose, instead, to be downgraded to provisional status. Once the museum re-opened in 2024 we set up an accreditation team which submitted a full accreditation return in November 2025. We are still waiting for Arts Council feedback, but are confident of success.

We obtained a grant from Gloucestershire County Council for a remote system to record temperature and humidity levels in each room. This allows us to identify changing environmental conditions more promptly than was previously possible, and to adjust heating controls accordingly. This has helped us reduce our energy consumption while still achieving satisfactory environmental conditions. From April 2026 the Town Council is paying for our electricity costs, but we are committed to achieving acceptable environmental conditions at the lowest cost.

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The Association of Independent Museums paid for a two-day collections care and conservation audit. This will help us understand areas for improvement and allow us to apply for grants to implement the work identified. Unfortunately, although the audit started in June 2025, it was only completed in March 2026, and we are still waiting for the report.

With the help of a grant from Museum Development South West we devised a detailed rationalisation process aligned with the Museum Association’s ‘toolkit’ which sets out best practice.

We carried out a Hazards in Collections review. MDSW trained two of our volunteers and provided some relevant materials, after which we prepared comprehensive COSHH and product safety data sheets and purchased a hazardous substances cabinet.

We joined the newly-established Gloucestershire Museums Archaeology Group, which is responsible for reviewing the Archaeological Archive Standards and formulating a long-term strategy for archaeological storage in the county.

Exhibitions

Most of our collections, exhibitions and display cabinets were moved into storage while repairs were carried out between October 2023 and June 2024. When they were brought back they seemed to take up twice the space as they had before, so setting exhibitions up again was a long and difficult task. After much work, exhibitions are now in place again, allowing us to concentrate on planning the modernisation that we wish to carry out.

We have held several temporary exhibitions in our rear ground floor gallery, on subjects such as the two world wars, slavery and 100 years of Tewkesbury Brownies.

Our Audience

General. Visitor numbers in 2024/25, excluding groups, were very low, at only 2,763, as the museum was closed for the first quarter while repairs were completed and in a state of some disarray thereafter while exhibitions were re-instated. In 2025/26 numbers increased considerably to 4,751. This is, however, still some way short of our record number in 2022/23.

Group visits. We are keen to expand our engagement with the local community by encouraging visits from groups such as schools and local societies. These generally take place outside our normal opening hours. In 2024/25, we hosted 7 groups with a total of 117 visitors and, in 2025/26, 5 groups with 114 visitors.

The new heating system that was installed in 2023/24 as part of the MEND refurbishment is providing a more comfortable experience for all our visitors.

Outreach. We have recently, after a gap of several years, resumed our outreach programme, albeit in a modest way, visiting Magnolia House twice in 2024/25 and twice in 2025/26. Around 10 residents of this care home attended each session.

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Events

Our walks and talks are an important part of delivering our second object, ‘The advancement of public knowledge and education about the history and heritage of Tewkesbury and its environs’. They are also an important source of income.

Walks, run in conjunction with ‘Project Alleycat’, take place throughout the year, but mainly in the spring and summer. They focus on the history of Tewkesbury’s unusual alleys and courts. They are particularly popular with visitors to the town, although wellattended by local people as well. Typically, 10-15 people attend each walk. In 2025/26 there were 48 walks with 593 participants, a little down from 2024/25 when there were 47 walks with 682 participants.

A programme of ten talks, open to everyone, is held during spring and autumn, attended mainly by local residents. There is a wide variety of subjects, many with a strong connection to the Tewkesbury area. Attendance varies (in 2025/26, between 26 and 70 people), depending on the subject and the speaker’s reputation. The 2025/26 programme attracted 576 participants, fewer than the record number of 671 in 2024/25, but still very successful. As well as the public programme, there were 4 talks to private organisations with around 70 participants.

Our popular Christmas Grotto returned to the museum in December.

A ‘tabletop sale’ was organised for the first time in April, in the Watson Hall, and proved so successful that another was held in September in the Town Hall. Between the two sales, 47 tables were hired out, mainly to local residents wishing to sell their cakes, bric-a-brac, etc

People

We have continued our drive to bring more museum-specific expertise into our board. Two of our heritage-qualified trustees unfortunately had to resign for health or work reasons during the year, but we have managed to appoint two new ones with equally good qualifications. They will focus on helping us realise our ambition for improved exhibitions.

Our volunteer numbers have improved slightly since last year, allowing us to open for more hours and to welcome more visitors, but they are still lower than our pre-closure levels.

With low volunteer numbers and a huge amount of work to do when we moved back into the museum, we engaged a part-time contractor for the second half of 2024/25, and were able to retain her for much of 2025/26.

6

Plans for the Future

Building

As noted above, structural defects were identified while the MEND-funded repairs were being carried out in early 2024. A further MEND bid to rectify these has been unsuccessful, and the Town Council will therefore pay for these repairs itself later in 2026/27.

The unsuccessful MEND bid also included a plan to reconfigure the ground floor of our building. In its current layout, this floor is far from ideal: all visitors are excluded from the west side and wheelchair users cannot access any part of the floor due to steep steps between rooms and narrow doorways. With the rejection of the MEND application, we are considering whether to apply to alternative funders for our existing plan or whether we can achieve our objectives in a different way.

Unlocking Collections

Unlocking Collections is a £21k project, of which £19k is being funded by the National Lottery. By our standards this is a lot of money, but far less than we need if we are to achieve our ambition of becoming ‘the best small museum in Gloucestershire’. The project started in March and is expected to be completed by December. It has two purposes:

o Expand our outreach and group visit programmes

Collections

With the conclusion of our collections audit, rationalisation, both during the Unlocking Collections project and thereafter, will occupy much of our time for the foreseeable future. Although rationalisation is aimed primarily at identifying objects that do not meet our collecting criteria, we will use the review stage to improve the care and cataloguing of the objects that we decide to retain.

7

Once we receive the report from the recent collections care and conservation audit, we will be able to identify key areas for improvement and, where necessary, apply for grants to help carry them out.

We will continue to liaise with Tewkesbury Borough Council in our attempt to persuade them to transfer title to the considerable archaeological deposits which they loaned us in 2004 and 2013. Discussions started in 2022 but, despite our best endeavours, have still not been concluded. We remain hopeful that, one day, the Council will find the time to address this issue.

Exhibitions

Our focus in 2026/27 will be on:

Our Audience

General. We have several years’ data that help us determine the best days of the week and the best hours of the day to open, but which also demonstrate that we receive visitors whenever we are open. In 2022/23, our last full year before closing for repairs, we were open for 1,082 hours and had 5,758 visitors. In 2025/26 we were open for 876 hours and had 4,751 visitors. Better marketing may help more visitors to seek us out, but the key to more visitors is to extend our opening hours.

We would greatly increase our audience by opening for five or six hours a day, seven days a week – 1,700 to 2,000 hours a year - but our actual opening hours depend on the availability of volunteers. Our 2026/27 target of 5,000 visitors is achievable with present volunteer numbers, but our planned increase to at least 6,000 in future years will be possible only if we can find more volunteers – or an employee.

8

Group Visits. The Unlocking Collections project includes funding for a part-time project manager from April to December. This increase in resource will help us identify and approach local schools and other groups who may be interested in visiting the museum, and to develop materials to enhance such visits. As a result, we anticipate doubling the average number of group visits in 2026/27 compared to the previous two years.

Outreach. Similarly, the extra resource from Unlocking Collections will enable us to contact more than the one residential home that we have visited in the last two years, and to prepare a range of memory boxes and similar materials to make such visits rewarding. We expect to make at least one visit a month from autumn 2026 onward.

As with our general audience, however, our ability to host group visits or make outreach visits depends on having a sufficient number of suitable volunteers, particularly after our contractor leaves.

Events

Our walks, talks, Christmas Grotto and tabletop sales are expected to continue into 2026/27:

People

Our board is strong on collections and exhibitions, but is, or may soon be, weaker in other areas as existing trustees retire. We will therefore try to find new trustees or volunteers with skills in areas including finance, admin, fundraising, people management and IT.

We need to grow our pool of volunteers, partly so we can open for more hours than in the last two years and partly to deliver Unlocking Collections activities both during and after the project. While the Rivers exhibition is a finite activity we will complete by the end of 2026, rationalisation will take several years, and we are keen to continue our outreach and group visit programmes indefinitely. On a positive note, these activities are interesting and should help us attract more volunteers.

Our Unlocking Collections project manager is a contractor who started in April and is expected to be with us until the conclusion of the project in December.

Two years ago we formally agreed that we would take on an employee when we have the funds, but the cost of even a part-time employee is far more than we can afford from our normal income streams. We hope that the grants to improve our exhibitions that we hope to win in the next few years will allow us to take on an employee.

9

Financial Review

Income

Our 2025/26 income stayed very similar to 2024/25, masking several important differences:

Our walks and talks programmes continued to do well, bringing in £0.3k more than last year.

2026/27 income will increase significantly as we have secured a £19.4k Unlocking Collections grant (see ‘Plans for the Future’ above). Other income streams are expected to remain similar to 2025/26.

In future years we will apply for further grants to fund our Transformation Project, which is designed to modernise and reinterpret our exhibitions.

Expenditure

2025/26 expenditure increased £1.5k over 2024/25:

2026/27 expenditure will vary significantly from 2025/26:

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Su Our net deficit for 2025126 was £5.1k, £1.Ok higher than 2024125. For both years the deficit reflects the trustees, decision to pay a contractor to help with the enormous amount of work we faced when we returned to the museum after a nine-month closure for repairs be￿een October 2023 and June 2024. We are fortunate to have had sufficient reserves to do this and consider the last tsvo years, £13.8k to be money well spent. Reserves Our policy is to hold.. 1. Restricted Funds, held for the purpose specified by the donor 2. Designated Funds, held for purposes specified by the trustees, normally the one-off costs in our 5-year forecast 3. General Funds, equivalent to 6-12 Months of the forecast cost of ongoing activrties (ie excluding one-off costs such as projects) Our reserves, at £34.6k, are still healthy and will help us carry out the improvements in our five-year plan. They consist of= £1.5k Restricted Funds, a donation from the Tewkesbury Town Mayor's Fund, to be used for access improvements £28.6k Designated Funds.. £2.6k fees for archaeological depostts (see 'Note 1 (d), below) £26.Ok costs relating to our Transformation Project, including match funding (starting with £2k for Unlocking Collections in 2026127) and fundraiser fees to help secure further grants £4.5k General Funds. The 2026127 cost of ongoing activities is budgeted at £6.8k. Our general reserves are therefore equivalent to 8 months of such costs Approval This report was approved by the Trustees on 16 June 2026 and signed on their behalf by.. Joanne Raywood (Chair) 11

Independent examiner's report on the accounts Report to the trustsesl Tewkesbury Museum members of On the accounts for the 31 March 2028 period ended Set out on pages Charity no. 1185929 13to20 Responsibilities and basis of report I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charty (llhe Trust") for the period ended 311312026. As the charity's trustees. you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordan￿ with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (Yhe Act"). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5){b) of the Act. Independent examiner's statement I have complete(J my examination. I confimi that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act- or the accounts did not ac￿rd wrth the accounting records., or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'tfue and fair, view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no cOn￿rnS and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed: Date: Name: Address: 66 Church Street Tewkesbury GIou￿stershIre GL20 5RZ 12

Tewkesbury Museum

Statement of Financial Activities Year Ended 31 March 2026

All Figures in £
Income
Donations and legacies
Charitable activities
Trading activities
Total income
Expenditure
Raising funds
Charitable activities
Total expenditure
Net income/(expenditure) and
net movement in funds
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds brought forward
Total funds carried forward		 Note
2
3		 Current Year Current Year Prior Year
Total
Total
13,736
9,206
3,455
6,344
1,688
1,611
18,879
18,211
823
179
23,145
22,093
23,968
22,272
-5,089
-4,061
39,656
43,717
34,567
39,656		 Prior Year
Total
Total
13,736
9,206
3,455
6,344
1,688
1,611
18,879
18,211
823
179
23,145
22,093
23,968
22,272
-5,089
-4,061
39,656
43,717
34,567
39,656
Unrestricted
10,818
3,455
1,688		 Restricted
2,918
0
0
15,961 2,918 18,211
823
20,227		 0
2,918		 179
22,093
21,050 2,918 22,272
-5,089
38,156		 0
1,500		 -4,061
43,717
33,067 1,500 39,656

13

Tewkesbury Museum Balance Sheet at 31 March 2026 All Figures in £ Note Current Year Total Prior Year Total Current assets Debtors 1,110 805 Cash at bank and in hand 34,203 39,975 Total euffent assets 35.313 40. 780 Liabilities Creditors.. amounts falling due wrthin one year 746 1,124 Net cutrent and total net assets 34,567 39,656 Funds of the charity Unrestricted: Designated 28.616 30,210 Other 4,451 7,946 Total 33,C67 38,156 Restricted 1,500 Total funds 34,567 39.656 Approved by the trustees on 16 June 2026 and suned on their behalf by.. Paul Drake 14

Notes to the Accounts for the Year Ended 31 March 2026

1 Accounting Policies

The principal accounting policies adopted, judgments and key sources of estimation uncertainty in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows:

These accounts have been prepared under the historical cost convention with items recognised at cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant note(s) to these accounts.

The accounts have been prepared in accordance with:

*Charity SORP 2026 will apply to our 2026/27 accounts.

Tewkesbury Museum meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

Given the Museum’s level of year-end reserves and estimated future income and expenditure, the Trustees consider that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operation for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, the financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis.

Restricted funds are donations where the donor has specified they should only be used for certain aspects of our work. The costs of raising and administering such funds are charged against the specific fund, unless expressly forbidden by the donor.

Unrestricted funds are available to spend on activities that further any of our charitable purposes.

The aim and use of each material restricted fund is set out in the Financial Review in the Trustees’ Report. Investment income, gains and losses are allocated to the appropriate fund.

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Income is recognised when the charity becomes entitled to the resources, it is more likely than not that the charity will receive the resources, and the monetary value can be measured with sufficient reliability.

Donations, grants and gifts are recognised when receivable. If a donation is subject to performance conditions, the income is recognised in our Statement of Financial Activities when it is probable that those conditions will be met, unless it is considered more appropriate to include it as deferred income in Creditors.

There has been no offsetting of assets and liabilities, or of income and expenditure, unless required or permitted by the FRS 102 SORP.

Legacies are recognised when there is a high probability that they will be received and the amount can be measured with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

Gift Aid recoverable is included in income when there is a valid declaration from the donor or donations qualify for the Gift Aid on Small Donations scheme. Any Gift Aid amount recovered on a donation is considered to be a part of that gift and is treated as an addition to the same fund as the initial donation unless the donor or the terms of the appeal have specified otherwise.

Interest on deposits is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably, which is normally on notification by the bank of the interest paid or payable.

Trading income is recognised at the point of sale.

Fees for archaeological deposits under £1,000 are added to unrestricted general funds on receipt. Fees over £1,000 are added to our designated fund for archaeology. Specific costs relating to any part of our archaeological collection are charged to this fund. The excess, if any, of 20% of the fund’s opening balance is transferred to general unrestricted funds each year.

e) Expenditure

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation and the amount can be measured with reasonable certainty. All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis under the following headings:

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f) Volunteers

The value of the services provided by volunteers is not included in these financial statements.

Assets costing more than £1,000 are capitalised at their historical cost when purchased.

The Museum’s collections do not generate income, and are, therefore, not classified as fixed assets.

h) Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discounts offered.

Cash at bank and in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments.

Creditors are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

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2 Analysis of Income

----- Start of picture text -----
All Figures in £ Current Year Prior Year
Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
Donations Donations 7,904 0 7,904 7,107
and Legacies Donated trustee expenses 952 0 952 972
Gift aid 1,962 0 1,962 1,127
Grants - government 0 2,918 2,918 0
Grants - other 0 0 0 0
Total 10,818 2,918 13,736 9,206
Charitable Walks and talks 3,455 0 3,455 3,134
Activities Archaeological storage 0 0 0 3,210
Total 3,455 0 3,455 6,344
Trading Sale of goods 528 0 528 432
Activities Table Top sales 899 0 899 0
Costume hire and sale 0 0 0 1,017
Christmas grotto 261 0 261 162
Total 1,688 0 1,688 1,611
Total Income 15,961 2,918 18,879 18,211
----- End of picture text -----

Details of grants are given in the Financial Review.

18

3 Analysis of Expenditure

All Figures in £
Fundraising and marketing
Cost of sales
Cost of table-top sales
Cost of Christmas grotto
Total
Projects
Contractor Costs
Cost of talks
Visitors
Insurance
Utilities
Broadband and IT
Trustee expenses
Collections
Other
Total
Total Expenditure
Raising
Funds
Charitable
Activities		 Current Year Current Year Total
200
365
243
15
823
2,976
7,774
800
336
1,727
5,856
1,357
952
246
1,121
23,145
23,968		 Prior Year
Total
179
0
0
0		 Prior Year
Total
179
0
0
0
Unrestricted
200
365
243
15		 Restricted
0
0
0
0
823 0 179
58
7,774
800
336
1,727
5,856
1,357
952
246
1,121		 2,697
6,000
647
30
1,508
7,726
1,453
972
442
618
2,918
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
20,227 2,918 22,093
21,050 2,918 22,272

Contractor costs were paid to one of our trustees. Her work and charges fully complied with our constitution and Charity Commission guidance.

All charitable expenditure is incurred in running the Museum and its programme of walks and talks. There are no governance or accounting costs. There are, therefore, considered to be no support costs.

4 Debtors

All Figures in £
Prepayments and accrued income
Total
Creditors
All Figures in £
Trade creditors
Accruals
Total		 Current
Year
1,110
1,110
Current
Year
686
60
746		 Prior Year
805
805
Prior Year
0
1,124
1,124

5 Creditors

All creditors are due within one year.

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6 Funds of the Charity

All Figures in £
Restricted Funds
Opening balance
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Closing balance
Unrestricted Funds
Designated Funds:
Opening balance
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Closing balance
General Funds:
Opening balance
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Closing balance
Total Unrestricted Funds:
Opening balance
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Closing balance
Total Funds
Opening balance
Income
Expenditure
Closing balance		 Current
Year
1,500
2,918
-2,918
0
1,500
30,210
0
-642
-952
28,616
7,946
15,961
-20,408
952
4,451
38,156
15,961
-21,050
0
33,067
39,656
18,879
-23,968
34,567		 Prior Year
1,500
0
0
0
1,500
36,000
3,210
-2,697
-6,303
30,210
6,217
15,001
-19,575
6,303
7,946
42,217
18,211
-22,272
0
38,156
43,717
18,211
-22,272
39,656

Restricted and Designated Funds - see Financial Review.

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